The present invention relates to a method of managing definition data for specifying the manner of executing a program product to realize a computer system, or more in particular to a method of creating a dictionary for integral management of all definition data related to a computer system.
A program product making up a computer system (a generic name of software supplied from makers or software houses or the like, typically including an operating system or a data base management system), in order to make its manner of use more flexible, generally has a software structure operating on the basis of a definition data related to a method of execution designated by the user. As a result, each program product is accompanied by a definition data corresponding thereto.
Each program product, which is organized in a computer system, executes on the basis of a definition data responding thereto. Functions are necessary, therefore, to manage the definition data of the program product used, that is to say, to register a data definition, to refer to a data (or to make inquiry and answer thereto as to which data is used by which program) and to delete such data. The dictionary system is a data management for realizing such functions.
In view of the ever-increasing volume and multiplication of the information handled by a computer system, it is now necessary to strengthen the data management system and realize a dictionary system capable of fully meeting the requirements of system expansion and structure modification by accurately grasping the relationship (the causality) between a vast amount definition data.
In the prior art, a definition data management system is supplied for each program product separately, or as a common function for several related program products as described in Comments 8090-6-602-30, Management System XDM for HITAC Program Product VOS3, Hitachi Ltd., pp. 9-18.
With regard to a method of managing definition data, on the other hand, as discussed in Journal of Information Processing Society, Vol. 29, No. 3 (1988), pp. 215-224, the International Organization for Standardization (hereinafter referred to "ISO") proceeding with the work to prepare an international standard on a dictionary (hereinafter referred to as "the second dictionary") for registering and managing the definition data (hereinafter referred to as "the structure definition data") which are used to create a dictionary (hereinafter referred to as "the first dictionary") for registering and managing the definition data which are used to create a user database In the process, a method of versatile management of definition data is being under consideration in which a structure definition data is registered in the second dictionary, and the first dictionary is created on the basis of such a data in order to appropriately expand the types and the like of the definition data managed as a dictionary.
The conventional definition data management system for program products has posed a problem that in the case where several definition data management systems are available for each program product or for each group of related program products, the same definition data is required to be registered in duplication in such systems or trouble is encountered when there is a need of operation while matching several identical definition data with each other.
The ISO information Resource Dictionary System hereinafter referred to as "IRDS"), on the other hand, with the object of integral management of computer system definition data, standardizes the models for indicating the structure of the first and second dictionaries and the usage of a service protocol therefor. The type of the definition data managed by the first dictionary, the contents of the structure definition data managed by the second dictionary and the source of the data, are a problem the solution of which is left up to the person who implements the system.
If an integral management of all the definition data for a computer system is to be realized by the first dictionary, for example, it is necessary to register with the second dictionary a structure definition data for the definition data required for execution of the program product making up the computer system. This definition data required for execution of a program product depend on the functions of the particular program product and are not uniform. A database management system, for instance, has the type of definition data required for execution, which varies from one supplier to another. Also, the database management systems supplied by the same supplier may have different types of definition data in accordance with the version or revision.
Further, the type and number of the program products constituting a computer system vary with the specification of the work realized by the particular computer system.
Furthermore, in the conventional definition data management systems, a data dictionary (the first dictionary in the present Specification) is realized as a database. Therefore, a structure definition data for the database is also supplied from the supplier or the like.
As mentioned above, in order to realize an integral management of all the definition data for a computer system by use of dictionaries, the supplier is required to supply a management system for the structure definition data in accordance with the program product structure of the computer system. This is inconvenient not only to the supplier but to the user who modifies the program product structure of his computer system in accordance with the work specification or employs a program product structure with the same multi vendor.
In addition, a management system for a monitor data or an operation data such as a management data for the location and use of a storage medium is realized individually separate from the definition data management system and therefore cannot be integrally managed by relating the definition data and the operation management data to each other.